Image forming device

Abstract

A controller executes, at a first interval, which is a predetermined interval, first processing of performing only the image quality adjusting processing in a first period, which is a period until the first cumulative print rate exceeds a predetermined first reference value and the first image quality adjusting processing is performed, and performs the image quality adjusting processing at a second interval shorter than the first interval and executes second processing of performing determining processing by using the remaining amount determining processor in a second period, which is a period after a time point at which the image quality adjusting processing is executed first time after the first cumulative print rate exceeds the first reference value.

1 . An image forming device that forms an image on a sheet, the image forming device comprising:
 a toner container housing a toner inside;   a developing mechanism that forms a toner image on a surface of an image carrier using the toner supplied from the toner container;   a developing power supply that supplies the developing mechanism with a developing bias, which is a predetermined voltage;   an image sensor that detects an image density of the toner image; and   a controller that can execute image forming processing of forming the toner image on the surface of the image carrier based on image data that is electronic data of the image formed on the sheet and image quality adjusting processing of forming an image quality adjusting toner image, which is a predetermined toner image, on the surface of the image carrier and adjusting a value of the developing bias based on image density information detected by the image sensor,   wherein the controller   includes a first cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a first cumulative print rate obtained by adding and cumulating a sheet print rate, which is a ratio between an area of the toner image formed during the image forming processing and an area of the sheet, is calculated from the image data and the sheet print rate obtained each time the image forming processing is performed and   a remaining amount determining processor that determines whether the toner remains in the toner container based on image density information of the image quality adjusting toner image detected by the image sensor when the image quality adjusting processing is performed,   executes, at a first interval, which is a predetermined interval, first processing of performing only the image quality adjusting processing in a first period, which is a period until the first cumulative print rate exceeds a predetermined first reference value and the first image quality adjusting processing is performed, and   performs the image quality adjusting processing at a second interval shorter than the first interval and executes second processing of performing determining processing by using the remaining amount determining processor in a second period, which is a period after a time point at which the image quality adjusting processing is executed first time after the first cumulative print rate exceeds the first reference value.   
     
     
         2 . The image forming device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the controller   further includes a second cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a second cumulative print rate obtained by adding and cumulating the sheet print rate of the image newly formed in the image forming processing after the image quality adjusting processing is performed in the second period each time the image forming processing is performed,   the first interval is defined by the number of processed sheets, which is the number of sheets to be subjected to the image forming processing, and   the second interval is defined by a value of the second cumulative print rate.   
     
     
         3 . The image forming device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the controller   further includes a second cumulative print rate calculator that calculates a second cumulative print rate obtained by adding and cumulating the sheet print rate of the image newly formed in the image forming processing after the image quality adjusting processing is performed in the second period each time the image forming processing is performed and   a continuation determiner that determines whether a state is a first state where next image data that is the image data to perform next image forming processing is present or a second state where the next image data is not present during the image forming processing in the second period and   determines whether to perform the second processing based on results of the second cumulative print rate calculator and the continuation determiner in the second period.   
     
     
         4 . The image forming device according to  claim 3 , wherein
 the controller   executes the second processing if a value of the second cumulative print rate has reached a second reference value, which is a value smaller than the first reference value, in a case where the continuation determiner determines that a state is the second state during the image forming processing in the second period, and   performs the second processing if the value of the second cumulative print rate has reached a third reference value, which is larger than the second reference value and smaller than the first reference value, in a case where the continuation determiner determines the first state during the image forming processing.   
     
     
         5 . The image forming device according to  claim 4 , wherein the third reference value is equal to or less than twice the second reference value. 
     
     
         6 . The image forming device according to  claim 1 , wherein the remaining amount determining processor determines that the toner is not in the toner container in a case where the image density detected by the image sensor of the image quality adjusting toner image that is formed does not reach a target density even by changing the value of the developing bias and forming the image quality adjusting toner image during the image quality adjusting processing. 
     
     
         7 . The image forming device according to  claim 6 , wherein
 the image forming device further includes a display, and   the controller displays, on the display, a message indicating that the toner container is empty in a case where the remaining amount determining processor determines that the toner does not remain in the toner container.